[Cadre-politics] Fearless Leader wages (board action)

[Josh Bonnett]

As some one who has been known to sound defensive, I seccond what she said. 
You are a legitimate human being and as such should be paid a living wage
if possible. No further explaination is really nessiary. 
On Thu, Dec 06, 2007 at 03:17:00AM +0000, kristina_ickes at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> My first observation is that the growth plan and expectations/predictions are not unreasonable. With a mature organization, infrasttructure and many of the processes, systems in place, the organization is scalable and the revenue targets are likely achievable and some might think, modest.  
> 
> 
> However, perhaps the information might be edited to be a little less explanatory of philosphy and more succinct, thus readily digestable (further, the simpler the information imparted - the less likely it is that it will be interpreted as defensive or part of a pitch. 
> 
> Dan - I say run with the projections if you can hack it down to three paragraphs. 
> 
> ~K
> . 
> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> 
> 
> > When I met with Phill Hall of the Parker Foundation. He asked for 
> > additional information. One of the things he asked for was a 
> > few paragraphs explaining the rationale behind my salary and the 
> > organization's plans to increase it. 
> > 
> > He was clear that to his board, (the people who award the money) 
> > my salary was both a feature and a bug. A feature in a startup, a 
> > bug in a sustainable organization. 
> > 
> > Strictly speaking, the last paragraph, the revenue growth plan 
> > requires the board be aware of it. 
> > 
> > Because of the email server crash and my sleep recovery 
> > yesterday. This now a couple days late. So ruthless feedback by 
> > midnight tonight (12/05) would be helpful. 
> > 
> > ################################################################# 
> > ################################################################# 
> > The directors of the Community Software Lab and I very much want 
> > my position as leader to have a reasonable salary and we are 
> > planning for this goal. While we could not have started without 
> > sacrifice, we know our effectiveness and longevity will be 
> > limited unless we can pay our leader at least non-profit market 
> > rate wages. 
> > 
> > When we started in 2004, our strengths were some goodwill, free 
> > office space, free utilities, very solid technical skills and my 
> > willingness to work for free. Our weaknesses were a lack of cash, 
> > and little experience in fund raising or running a business. 
> > Given this mix, the only way we could start was with volunteer 
> > leadership. 
> > 
> > We are not the only non profit to start with an unpaid leader. 
> > Millard Fuller, founder of Habiat for Humanity, wasn't paid for 
> > the organization's first 5 years and made less than $25,000 per 
> > year for the organization's next 10 years 
> > 
> > I was at Habitat International for 5 years during the end of the 
> > transition from an organization powered mostly by full time, 
> > live-in volunteers to an organization run by paid staff. I was on 
> > the Board of greater Lowell Habitat for Humanity for 3 years 
> > before they made the transition to a paid executive director. It 
> > was a difficult but necessary transition in both cases. 
> > 
> > The Community Software Lab is not a club, a place for hobbyists 
> > to putter around doing vague good. We serve other non-profits, 
> > not ourselves. The board needs to be able to fire our leader. We 
> > need funders like the Parker Foundation to take us seriously. We 
> > need to know that the work we are doing is valuable enough for 
> > people to pay us. 
> > 
> > As strange as it sounds, I want the board to be able to fire me. 
> > Organizations are usually more effective than individuals. I want 
> > the CSL to be an organization. We can't be an organization if we 
> > are dependent on a single individual, even me. Right now, the 
> > board can't fire me without destroying the organization because 
> > they can't find somebody willing to work for my low wage. This 
> > situation needs to change. 
> > 
> > I want to be lead this work in Lowell for the next 20 years. 
> > However, I want to be leader because I am the best choice, not 
> > the only choice. 
> > 
> > I believe non-profits are generally rational and motivated to use 
> > their resources to accomplish their mission. There is a lot of 
> > need for desktop support. Commercial offerings are expensive and 
> > of uneven quality. Money is not the only measure of worth, but if 
> > our services are of higher quality and lower cost that the 
> > alternatives, then we will make enough money to pay a substancial 
> > part of an ED's salary. 
> > 
> > In 2007, I was paid $14,000 directly for my work at the CSL. This 
> > was a considerable improvement from $0 in 2006. Our current goal 
> > is to make the money to increase my salary by $3,000 per year 
> > until it is $40,000. We propose to do this by increasing our 
> > overall revenues to $200,000 per year by 2015. A growth rate of 
> > 20% per year is conservative. Our 2006/07 revenues were $40,000, 
> > approximately 4 times our 2005/06 revenues. We project our 
> > 2007/2008 revenues to be approximately _ times our 2006/07 revenues. 
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